


The Seventeen Seasons of Yuuka Kazami

by GrimoireOfAlice



Category: Touhou Project
Genre: Character Study, F/F, Gen, Illustrated, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Storytelling, dubiously reliable narration
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-06
Updated: 2020-06-18
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:11:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21696478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GrimoireOfAlice/pseuds/GrimoireOfAlice
Summary: A series of short stories about whatever Yuuka Kazami might be up to during the events of each of the main Windows games (despite the title, I probably won't do PC98. It's referenced constantly, though). Chapters will vary greatly in length and tone.
Relationships: Hakurei Reimu & Kazami Yuuka, Kazami Yuuka/Saigyouji Yuyuko
Comments: 2
Kudos: 20





	1. Red on Red

It was a warm afternoon in late summer during which Yuuka Kazami found herself unceremoniously asphyxiated by a strange red smog arising from the surface of Misty Lake. She had been watching it approach from a meadow by the bank with detached amusement, presuming it to be the form of some youkai - but when it surged up to gather around her head, she found everything washed over with crimson. First the mountains, next the forest by the lake, then the bank, the wildflowers, her hands as she stretched them out into the ice cold mist - faded into a mass of red. It caught her by surprise at the back of her throat and so despite being known for the strength of her constitution, she was compelled to wander the dream world in annoyance as her body recovered. Eventually, Yuuka opened her eyes to another plane of pure red - in semi-conscious confusion she noticed it quiver as the mist had, but as her mind cleared it appeared more material, solid and substantial. She looked up and found the anxious young face of Reimu Hakurei, above her crimson skirts. Her eyes were wide with something which occupied an uncertain space between fear and concern, quite unlike the attitude of jovial disrespect with which the kid usually approached her. The morning sun was warm, the flowers soft, the mist had almost completely dissipated and lingered only in patches like clusters of poppies. Reimu stood as if holding in all the tension she could muster, lest the gentleness of the morning break her resolve. She gripped her gohei. 

“I - we - we solved the incident!” she blurted out, as if reluctantly releasing some of that tension. The more Yuuka looked, the more exhausted Reimu appeared; it had been evening when she collapsed - had the poor girl been up all night? Stil addled from the smog, she mumbled “The what?”  
Reimu looked around, and back behind her Yuuka thought she saw the black skirts of Marisa Kirisame, standing a little way off.   
“It was an incident,” she said eventually with a hint of surprise, “it was and it’s all fixed now.” She let out her breath and shuffled back as if to leave. Yuuka pulled herself up from the bank.   
“Sorry - what happened? Who was responsible for that fog? What was it?”   
“I don’t know what it was but the vampire youkai in the mansion by the lake was releasing it - it was pretty awful.” She let her shoulders relax slightly - “It must have been if it knocked you out!”  
“Oh _ well _ , a youkai from Gensokyo, then? I’m glad to hear that you didn’t need to go running off into the dream world without letting me join in on the fun.” Yuuka yawned.   
“How about some thanks?” retorted the kid.   
“Huh? I-”   
“We saved you and it wasn’t easy!” Reimu glared at her more in confusion than anger. How tired she must be, Yuuka thought.   
“Did you do it for me, Reimu? You can’t have seen me on your way here, in the dark of night, lying underneath the mist.”   
“No, I-”   
“You start going around beating up Gensokyo youkai and you come to another youkai for thanks? Might wanna rethink that, kid.”   
“What do you mean?” For a second, Reimu looked almost close to tears - but she bit her lip and gulped.   
“Go tell some humans that you saved them. If you don’t want to do that, then go back to playing around with spirits in the mountains.”   
“It was dangerous for everyone and it’s my job! You know it’s my job!” Now she really did look as if she might cry. Her hand was shaking, and the streamers of the gohei dangled over Yuuka’s face.   
“Oh Reimu... I didn’t mean - of course I’m grateful. I’m sorry, kid.”

Reimu’s head and shoulders drooped slightly. She seemed so small, and more anxious than Yuuka had ever seen her before - this strange girl who always acted so stoically towards the hardships of her lifestyle and so unconcerned towards its oddities. That’d be the only way she can live like this, Yuuka supposed. She was gripped with a sudden (and unprecedented) pang of concern for Reimu Hakurei, and with it came an unusual feeling which might be termed ‘regret’ or ‘conscience’ with which she was even less familiar. Later on, she recalled that it had only ever really raised its head when she was dealing with humans.   
“If you get some sleep,” she said, “I’ll stop by the shrine this evening and - yeah, I’ll bring you some plums from a hidden spot I found - since you so kindly rescued me from certain death.”  
At this, Marisa (the little rat had evidently been listening all along) piped up that she had also defeated the vampire and would like a plum as well.   
“Certainly, certainly - plums all round, we’ll have a party to celebrate - but only if both of you go straight to sleep.”

Reimu said nothing. She looked at Yuuka with something akin to sadness in her eyes. She could feel the girl’s gaze passing over her flowery hair, her crimson youkai eyes. Eyes like a vampire’s (although they weren’t always red), hair like a fairy. Measuring herself up against the only kind of model she knows, Yuuka thought. However much Reimu searches, she’ll never be able to get rid of the tension, the doubt - about what makes her human and what doesn’t. An annoying distinction, a necessary distinction - and a sad one, if it makes her so upset and me so unable provide any kind of lasting comfort or solution. But Reimu had made significant changes to Gensokyo’s laws - which might make it less uncomfortable for her to have to live alongside youkai. She wouldn’t have to kill so many, after all. But oh, it would be so much worse for her if she ever did. Yuuka shivered, even though the warmth of the sun had returned to the meadows. She felt as if she was sitting on the edge of a precipice - the drop was not deadly (nothing had ever been deadly to her) but the waters beneath were dark, unfamiliar, and all-consuming. The new age had offered her a choice: to stay on her cliff of impartiality, a life free of care and free of attachment - or to dive into the depths of the new Gensokyo by reaching out her hand across the gulf which separated humans from youkai. She knew the gulf must never be closed, but perhaps it could be bridged. She hesitated.   
  
“Thank you,” Reimu said - and the pair turned away through the morning haze and the last vestiges of the crimson fog, Marisa calling out to her to remember the plums. 

  
  
  



	2. Dead of Spring

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't really have much inspiration to illustrate this chapter, but there's a sort of cover picture at the end.

“Margatroid! Open up! Alice? Where are you? It's very cold out here! Ow!”  
Yuuka shuffled back, blowing on her cold (and now smarting) hand as she moved towards the window; in which a light could clearly be seen. As she bent to peer through the steamed-up glass, Alice finally heaved open the door, like a reluctant sigh. She greeted her with little more warmth than the frosty night air had to offer.   
“You wouldn’t have this kind of problem if you got yourself a house.”  
“Don’t want one,” Yuuka smiled, “What happened to  _ you _ ?”  
Alice, ever prim and immaculate, had twigs in her hair and damp patches on her dress. An attendant doll brushed a fleck of unmelted snow from her sleeve as she ushered Yuuka inside.  
“Something red and white happened to me,” she sighed, “and then something black and white, and finally something silver and blue.”  
“Blue? The ice fairy?”  
“No, no - I think she’s the vampire’s maid. Although her manners aren’t exactly what you’d expect in that line of work.” Alice’s lip curled. She turned to go upstairs, pointing Yuuka towards the parlour.  
“I won’t make you any tea until I’ve changed my clothes, so don’t touch anything!”   
“I know the drill, kid!”

It was easy for a magician to get a blazing fire going in a flash, even if they had only just rushed in after being beaten to a pulp in three consecutive danmaku duels; and this was the telltale light which had tempted Yuuka to knock. Alice’s parlour was small and homely, stuffed fit to burst with handmade cushions, shelves of dolls, ugly embroidered samplers, even uglier western-looking ceramics. Kitsch witch, thought Yuuka as she collapsed into an armchair. She had almost dozed off before Alice returned with a tray of tea and biscuits and curled up in the other chair.   
“You took my usual seat”, she said.  
“Got here first”, retorted Yuuka. Alice finally ventured a wry smile. As she poured the tea, Yuuka noticed that her hands shook slightly. Alice had a fraught history of losing battles to Reimu and Marisa, she remembered. Not to mention to her. She was about to offer some vague and insincere word of comfort, but the young puppeteer spoke first.   
“So I presume you’ve come to preach about the balance of the seasons and the disruption of the cycle of nature. Please don’t. I’d rather have another danmaku fight if I must.”  
“What - no, that’s hardly my style. No one has been accusing  _ me _ of anything, so I have no sermons to deliver. I’m just cold, Alice. And tired. And I want to see the flowers.”  
“You’re not worried that they’ll be decimated by the frost? Summer won’t come either at this rate.”  
“Oh no, not in the slightest, this is all completely unnatural. There’s clearly somebody stealing the spring.”  
Alice arched an eyebrow and sat back.  
“Indeed,” she smiled, “so who’s the culprit?”   
“No clue. Well, I’d place an accusation (I trust Reimu’s judgement, you know), but you’ve gotten yourself smashed to smithereens and I still see no cherry blossoms.”  
Rather than glowering as expected, Alice flashed Yuuka a smirk. “Are you really so sure? I thought you were more observant than that.”  
“What?”  
“There’ve been cherry petals falling out of the sky along with the snow all day. Not many, but they’re all over Gensokyo. You really didn’t notice?”  
“I’ve been asleep for days,” Yuuka gave a perfunctory yawn, “escapism, you know. I’m sick of winter.”   
“Is it spring in the dream world?”  
“It’s not very organic there, but it’s more fun than this.”  
“But who do you think it is? Greedy celestials? Rogue fairies?”  
Yuuka took her turn to raise an eyebrow: “Alice, how well do you know Gensokyo’s skies?”  
“Well enough by now, I should think.”  
“How high up have you been?”  
“Oh, I know what you’re getting at, I tried to follow the petals up there this morning. I may not be Reimu, but I’ve got some instinct for investigation,” she laughed, “I found a great big barrier that I’ve never seen before. It’s not the Hakurei one, is it? I thought it was at least plausible that someone from the outside world was after our spring. But you know, don’t you. Go on.”  
Yuuka sat up, stirring her tea.  
“Why don’t I tell you a story - that’s what humans think winter is for, don’t they?”  
Alice took a biscuit from the tray and looked into the fire.   
“You might as well keep me entertained until Reimu’s lot drags in the tardy season,” she shrugged.

“One spring,” Yuuka began, “A few hundred years ago I think, the front gate of another realm was moved to this region. Its brand new barrier was flimsily constructed at the time, so it didn’t take much effort for me to avail my curiosity and fly up to investigate. The mountains behind the shrine were always a place where the film between various worlds wore thin, Hakurei barrier or no; and this new portal was set amongst the clouds above them. The first thing I noticed about the place was that it was bizarrely constructed. Not only was the border useless against anyone with the power of flight and a bit of common sense, but beyond it I found a mountainous staircase beneath a heavy blue sky. Doubtless for the convenience of anyone who had somehow found their way up into the clouds without resorting to flight.”

Alice laughed, “I hope our esteemed incident resolvers haven’t wasted their energy thinking they have to climb them.”

“Oh, I have no doubt Reimu will let rip on the proprietor for her bad landscaping choices. As I have done myself in the past, to no avail. She says they’re supposed to be intimidating. Anyway, I alighted at the top in a landscape of eerie beauty. Spread out as far as the misty horizon was a great rocky plain, full of wildflowers and blooming cherry trees and ghosts, winding their way through the blossom. Before me lay a long formal avenue, flanked with stone lanterns and flowering trees. It culminated in what looked like a great mansion, some way in the distance. As I paused to breathe the whole place in, shoals of phantoms began to drift around me, as if in placid curiosity. The air up here was colder than you’d expect for a sunny spring afternoon, but I knew that ghosts were chilly things. It was then that I remembered snatches of talk I’d heard about it being the Netherworld’s border that was to be our new neighbor. It seemed a solid guess, even without that information.”

“Ah, I had been wondering if it was heaven.”

Yuuka smiled. “It’s a bit low down for that. And I imagine they’re a little less lax with the defences. Well, I saw no one with a body around, so I decided to explore, sauntering straight down the avenue towards the mansion. As I advanced, I noticed that the shadowy shape rising behind it which I had taken for a distant mountain was really a massive, skeletal tree. Unlike the sea of spring pink around it, it was completely bare of leaves and blossoms - which made it look rather like an immovable stormcloud hanging over the house. An apt metaphor, as I later learned. The landscape around the mansion faded from meadow into formal garden, and peeping through the trees on one side, I noticed a man with a wheelbarrow and a large phantom at his side. He had his back to me, but oops, I thought, couldn’t any of the little ghosts nuzzling at my legs like friendly cats give me away whenever they chose? Not that I meant to cause trouble. I was there to admire the flowers, nothing more.”

“Hearing that from you is enough to make most people panic,” said Alice, raising another eyebrow. 

“Whatever could you mean?” Yuuka replied slyly, “But I’m getting to the good part, so hush your cheeky interruptions. Well, as I watched the fully-corporeal man and his pet spectre wind their way through the cherry trees, I noticed that the temperature had dropped. I felt a prickling sensation on my neck like a shiver, but I’d sensed no presence around me other than the ghosts. Slowly, I turned my head over my shoulder - to find myself looking down the length of a silver blade resting against my throat - and into an astonishingly pretty face. The young woman (pale hair, pasty skin, fancy clothes - obviously a ghost) seemed more frightened than angry, and she demanded in a quivering voice that I state my name and explain myself. I blinked, a little bemused. I liked her pluck. I wasn’t in the mood to fight, and I was more curious about the place than ever now. I adopted a posture of dignified pomposity and replied that I was a local god paying a formal visit - surely it was a mistake on their part that I had been given neither a proper reception nor invitation nor introduction? Surely the proprietors of the place wanted to get off on the right foot with the locals? I pushed the sword away from my neck with a stately fingertip. Well, it did the trick. The girl gave a little anxious start, and launched into an elaborate apology - had I not been involved in the discussions surrounding the move? No no, she didn’t remember me - a severe oversight on the other administrators’ part, she wasn’t familiar with the local region at all. She would be very happy to take me inside right away and explain just what had been agreed on, if that would do anything to remedy the slight. She did so hope we could be on good terms! I was pretty amused. You never know what you’re going to get out of a lie like that, but it rarely disappoints. But I didn’t care for the politics of gods or ghosts, so I took my attitude down a notch and let on that I was hardly a major deity. In fact, I’d let her off the hook if she’d give me a tour of the garden. She gave me a suspicious glance, but nodded in assent. So - I mentioned that she was cute, right?”

“ _ Yes _ ”

“Good, good - well, she skipped off the paved road and led me to a gravel path winding through the trees. As we walked, I tried to glean what I could about her and the place; without letting on that I had no clue whatsoever about what had really been going on in the upper echelons of unofficial inhuman administration recently. She was, it turned out, technically in charge of the Netherworld, but for all her purported desire to smooth out the slight to my divinity, she wouldn’t say much about the move. Or herself, for that matter. I suppose it was fair of her to be wary of me after my break-in, but I had resolved not to mess the place up. She had a lovely smile. She seemed like the witty sort, too, if only she’d loosen up a bit. To this end, I did my best to make some small talk, mentioning off-hand that I could make any flower bloom, even in a pure land. Now that wasn’t even a lie.”

“I know.”

“Well, I struck gold - her distrustful poise melted away in an instant, and she grasped my sleeve, beaming with delight. “Do you think you could do me a favour?” She asked, “I’ll owe you one, I promise!” I nodded and said that I would be delighted, and she clapped her hands with glee and wheeled back towards the house, almost at a run. Without another word, she led me round behind the mansion to the great big tree I mentioned earlier. Up close, it was even more ominous in appearance and aura. It loomed, ginormous, in a patch of cracked black earth some way behind the house, adorned with a shimenawa of formidable size. Nothing grew on the ground by its trunk, nor anywhere above what I presumed was the extent of the root system. In pointed contrast to the thick blossom of the garden, there wasn’t a sprig or a bud on any of its spidery branches - although the bark signalled that it was also a cherry. The place smelled bad. Perhaps not in a manner which would be perceptible to the physical senses - but just to be near it made me think, irrepressibly, of the stench of rotting flesh. It’s not a smell I usually mind, you know - but there was nothing in this place of the natural cycle of death and growth. In fact, to call it rotten in that sense is almost too much of a flattery. It was simply cold, dry, and hungry. I couldn’t help but grimace, but the girl - Yuyuko Saigyouji, she said her name was - didn’t seem bothered in the slightest. She spun around with a warm, innocent smile and asked me if I could make this tree bloom. 

Well, what was I to do? I couldn’t exactly say no, not with those big round eyes turned up at me like an imploring puppy. What a fool I had been to decide to be nice to her! But she didn’t seem the type to be open to flirtatious teasing in the first place, so I had had no choice at all - no choice! If this was some sort of youkai tree then I wasn’t even sure if my powers would work on it, but you don’t get anywhere in life (or death) without trying out new things and taking risks. I asked, calmly and politely, why she wanted to make the tree bloom? Why wasn’t it flowering already - was it dead? Maybe she should try watering it or fertilising the ground, since its current conditions weren’t particularly conducive to growth. No it wasn’t dead, she replied, she’d been told that much but she didn’t know anything else about it at all! At all? Yes, really! Whoever had been involved with moving the Netherworld’s border had been miserly with crucial administrative details such as ‘what to do with your monster cherry tree and, more importantly, what not to do with it.’ I had assumed that she was just an ordinary ghost who had been promoted, if not someone brought in from hell, so I didn’t think much of it - except that their administration was as much of a mess as ever. 

Yuyuko sighed prettily. “Wouldn’t it be beautiful if it bloomed along with all the other trees? Like a mountain of cherry blossom, instead of an ugly heap of sticks!” If I’d been feeling cleverer that day, I might have scooped her up and flown down to show her the mound of cherry trees on the hills around the shrine. But the girl wanted her own mountain, and who was I to deny her? I could tell she was almost frantic with excitement, so I cast my gaze to the heavens with a defeated smile, pinched a little twig from a low-hanging bough, and did what I was told.”

Alice heaved an elaborate sigh, and was ignored. 

“Well, it wasn’t any more difficult to make the thing flower than a normal tree, it just made me feel a bit sick. Strength left my body in a frantic rush and I almost stumbled, but I kept myself upright and made as if I had tripped on a root. It felt like the tree was sapping energy from the very pit of my stomach, heavy and guttural. Sure enough, however, the twig burst into an abnormally bright cluster of petals - spotless, like flowers made of paper or marzipan. The arm I had used to fuel the tree dropped to my side, completely numb. I couldn’t even hide its immobility, but Yuyuko, pure soul, didn’t notice a thing. She grabbed my limp hand and thanked me profusely with the most charming smile. My fingers flopped ambivalently in her grip. 

“How clever you are, they’re glorious, glorious! You’ve perfected my garden, Ms. Yuuka, let’s - oh!” Her face dropped as she saw the petals begin to decay on the very branch and then fall, quite deliberately, to the ground. I don’t mean that they just faded - they started to rot. The blossoms fizzled a bit when they hit the barren earth and began to smell, literally this time, like a putrid corpse. Yuyuko looked pensive for a moment, and then with her eyes still fixed on the ground she calmly suggested that I try and make the whole tree bloom at once. Surely that would purge whatever was wrong with it from its body? I was pretty sure that what was wrong with the tree  _ was _ the tree, but I was slowly regaining the use of my arm, so I took a moment to consider my options. The lies that presented themself to me - that I needed to do a specific ritual at a certain time in order to muster that much power, say - were such as would only postpone and complicate the situation rather than extradite me from its clutches. Moreover, to contrive an elaborate exposition of the tree’s true nature and history would eventually land me in more trouble with the administration of hell than was worth it. But you mustn’t think that I was only acting out of selfless impulse. I felt it my duty to somehow communicate to this poor dead young lady that this was a dangerous place which she was clearly being employed to protect some seal upon, not a pretty garden ornament. In the spirit of altruism, I decided that the best method of communication would be to make an example of myself. I had a hunch that it wouldn’t kill me - I’ve been put through far worse than a soul-sucking sapling throughout my long life and always emerged unscathed. This route was also clearly the most convenient for my wistful courtship attempt. I didn’t want to go back on my word or to patronise her with fruitless warnings. And when have I ever shied away from either mortal danger or a dangerous woman? So I gave it my all. 

“Please don’t be downcast,” I told her with a wink, “It’ll all be sorted in a flash, I promise.” I cocked her chin up with a finger from my fully-functional arm as smoothly as I could, and gazed deeply into her eyes for what I hoped was a meaningful pause before removing my hand and placing it on one of the monstrous roots. And well. That was that.”  
  
“What?” Alice laughed, “Don’t tell me it  _ worked _ ?”

“It did not. I woke up in bed in a strange room to find Yuyuko bending over me and stroking my hair. I had been knocked so far out that I didn’t even loiter in the dream world. It was probably the most mortal peril I’ve ever been in, all things considered.”

Alice, having exhausted the potency of sighs and eye-rolls, simply glared. 

“Not that I have any regrets. Yuyuko was overjoyed to see me awake, and she pulled me into her arms and started to cry. She was so sorry, she sobbed, she had no idea that the tree was such a menace, no idea that it would hurt me. She promised to give up on the idea of making it bloom, even if it was so ugly. I clearly needed to hold her to that, for which negligence I take full responsibility. Anyway, I put my hand to my hair to brush it out of my face, and found that the spring buds in it had vanished. It was shorter, filled with pine needles and dry leaves - as it turns with the autumn or winter. So there you have it. The hot ghost princess who lives in the sky has a tree which eats spring. Yuyuko didn’t let me leave the place until I had made a full recovery, but neither of us had any problem with that arrangement.”

Yuuka broke off with a smile, glancing out of the window at the still-snowy landscape, twinkling in the dawn light. “I’d say Reimu was taking her time if I wasn’t personally well aware of her strength. She has an odd affinity with death, so she’ll be in her element. They should have tried to lure her out with the promise of food or a pretty view,” she laughed. 

“She hasn’t changed much, then?” asked Alice, “I presume you’ve seen her since, unless you broke her heart and left her for someone even more dangerous.”  
“Oh, it was never more than a fling,” Yuuka grinned, “I’ve seen her on and off over the centuries. There’s a lot of common ground between us, really, but she’s very close to Yukari Yakumo, who doesn’t like me loitering around the Netherworld. But I wouldn’t say she hasn’t grown up at all - her demeanour has matured from genuine to willful naivety over the years. In fact I’ve never been sure how oblivious she really was that day. I was a compliant test subject, that’s for certain. But I’ll never know, because there’s no point in asking.”  
“That’s the first time I’ve heard of someone outwitting you in sheer incomprehensibility.”  
“Well, I don’t have to try. Yuyuko and Yukari, on the other hand, have shady reputations to maintain.”  
“I’m sure they wish they were you,”   
“Of course they do. That’s why they can’t keep their hands off me.” Yuuka slouched back languidly in her chair, awaiting Alice’s inevitable groan. For once it did not come. She had sprung out of her seat and dashed to the window, wide-eyed with amazement. Yuuka sat still for a moment, pensive. “You can’t outwit Reimu,” she said to herself. 

Spring came in as the pair stood outside Alice’s front door. Compelled to abandon its usual gradual ingress, it burst out all at once in thick, heavy flurries of phantom cherry petals which vanished as soon as they hit the ground or a snow-covered tree. Touched by the shower, fresh young leaves began to break from branches on which the snow was still melting, and Alice’s camelias shook away the frost as if brought to life. Alice thought it looked like coloured dye seeping into blank cloth, watercolour on a white page, or a blush brought to a pale cheek. Yuuka thought about how the cold pallor of the snow was so much like the flesh of a ghost, and that this strange blossoming of colour was a different kind of resurrection from the old yearly awakening of spring out of winter.

  



End file.
